Question Asks Research Articles

Demographic-specific Validity of the Cancer Prevention Study-3 Sedentary Time Survey.

This study examined the 1-yr test-retest reliability and criterion validity of sedentary time survey items in a subset of participants from a large, nationwide prospective cohort. Participants included 423 women and 290 men age 31 to 72 yr in the Cancer Prevention Study-3. Reliability was assessed by computing Spearman correlation coefficients between responses from prestudy and poststudy surveys. Validity was assessed by comparing survey-estimated sedentary time with a latent variable representing true sedentary time estimated from the 7-d diaries, accelerometry, and surveys through the method of triads. Sensitivity analyses were restricted to 566 participants with an average of 14+ h of diary and accelerometer data per day for 7 d per quarter. Reliability estimates for total sitting time were moderate or strong across all demographic strata (Spearman ρ ≥ 0.6), with significant differences by race (P = 0.01). Reliability estimates were strongest for the TV-related sedentary time item (Spearman ρ, 0.74; 95% confidence interval, 0.70-0.77). The overall validity coefficient (VC) for survey-assessed total sedentary time was 0.62 (95% confidence interval, 0.55-0.69), although VC varied by age group and activity level (P < 0.05). However, VC were similar across groups (P < 0.05) when restricting to highly compliant participants in a sensitivity analysis. The Cancer Prevention Study-3 sedentary behavior questionnaire has acceptable reliability and validity for ranking or categorizing participants according to sedentary time. Acceptable reliability and validity estimates persist across various demographic subgroups.

Compactifications of manifolds with boundary

This paper is concerned with compactifications of high-dimensional manifolds. Siebenmann’s iconic 1965 dissertation [L. C. Siebenmann, The obstruction to finding a boundary for an open manifold of dimension greater than five, Ph.D. thesis, Princeton Univ. (1965), MR 2615648] provided necessary and sufficient conditions for an open manifold [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]) to be compactifiable by addition of a manifold boundary. His theorem extends easily to cases where [Formula: see text] is noncompact with compact boundary; however, when [Formula: see text] is noncompact, the situation is more complicated. The goal becomes a “completion” of [Formula: see text], i.e. a compact manifold [Formula: see text] containing a compactum [Formula: see text] such that [Formula: see text]. Siebenmann did some initial work on this topic, and O’Brien [G. O’Brien, The missing boundary problem for smooth manifolds of dimension greater than or equal to six, Topology Appl. 16 (1983) 303–324, MR 722123] extended that work to an important special case. But, until now, a complete characterization had yet to emerge. Here, we provide such a characterization. Our second main theorem involves [Formula: see text]-compactifications. An important open question asks whether a well-known set of conditions laid out by Chapman and Siebenmann [T. A. Chapman and L. C. Siebenmann, Finding a boundary for a Hilbert cube manifold, Acta Math. 137 (1976) 171–208, MR 0425973] guarantee [Formula: see text]-compactifiability for a manifold [Formula: see text]. We cannot answer that question, but we do show that those conditions are satisfied if and only if [Formula: see text] is [Formula: see text]-compactifiable. A key ingredient in our proof is the above Manifold Completion Theorem — an application that partly explains our current interest in that topic, and also illustrates the utility of the [Formula: see text]-condition found in that theorem.

Homicides and Weapons: Examining the Covariates of Weapon Choice

This study examines the covariates of weapon choice in homicide incidents. Two research questions are examined. The first research question is: what variables influence the use of a particular type of weapon in a homicide? The second research question asks: how does the method of weapon retrieval, or lack thereof, affect the choice of weapon? The findings suggest that firearms are more likely to be on the offender’s person and carried to the incident scene relative to other weapon types. In addition, the use of specific types of weapons is conditioned by the demographic and lifestyle characteristics of victims and offenders.

On the Strength of Unambiguous Tree Automata

This work is a study of the class of non-deterministic automata on infinite trees that are unambiguous i.e. have at most one accepting run on every tree. The motivating question asks if the fact that an automaton is unambiguous implies some drop in the descriptive complexity of the language recognised by the automaton. As it turns out, such a drop occurs for the parity index and does not occur for the weak parity index.More precisely, given an unambiguous parity automaton [Formula: see text] of index [Formula: see text], we show how to construct an alternating automaton [Formula: see text] which accepts the same language, but is simpler in terms of the acceptance condition. In particular, if [Formula: see text] is a Büchi automaton ([Formula: see text]) then [Formula: see text] is a weak alternating automaton. In general, [Formula: see text] belongs to the class [Formula: see text], what implies that it is simultaneously of alternating index [Formula: see text] and of the dual index [Formula: see text]. The transformation algorithm is based on a separation procedure of Arnold and Santocanale (2005).In the case of non-deterministic automata with the weak parity condition, we provide a separation procedure analogous to the one used above. However, as illustrated by examples, this separation procedure cannot be used to prove a complexity drop in the weak case, as there is no such drop.

Enzyme-Responsive Charge-Reversal Polymer-Mediated Effective Gene Therapy for Intraperitoneal Tumors

Gene therapy has demonstrated effectiveness in many genetic diseases, as evidenced by recent clinical applications. Viral vectors have been extensively tested in clinical gene-therapy trials, but nonviral vectors such as cationic polymers or lipids are much less used due to their lower gene-transfection efficiencies. However, the advantages of nonviral vectors, such as easily tailored structures, nonimmunogenetics, and relatively low cost, still drive great efforts to improve their transfection efficiencies. A reverse question asks if nonviral vectors with current gene transfection efficiency can find application niches. Herein, we synthesized a cationic polymer, poly{ N-[2-(acryloyloxy)ethyl]- N-[ p-acetyloxyphenyl]- N, N-diethylammonium chloride} (PQDEA), as a gene-delivery carrier and compared it side by side with chemotherapy drugs for cancer treatment. PQDEA is rapidly hydrolyzed by intracellular esterases into anionic poly(acrylic acid) to give low cytotoxicity and fast release of DNA for expression. PQDEA formed stable complexes with DNA (PQDEA/DNA polyplexes), which were further coated with a lipid layer to make serum-stable lipidic polyplexes, LPQDEA/DNAs, for in vivo use. In an intraperitoneal tumor xenograft model mimicking late-stage metastatic cervical cancer, the LPQDEA/DNA vector with TRAIL suicide gene exerted strong tumor inhibition as effective as paclitaxel, the first-line anticancer drug, but gave much less tumor relapse and much longer survival than the clinical chemotherapy drugs, irinotecan and paclitaxel. Equally important, the gene therapy showed much fewer adverse effects than the chemotherapy drugs. This work shows that nonviral vectors with current transfection efficiencies may produce therapeutic advantages and may be safe and worthy of clinical translation in, for example, intraperitoneal cancer therapy.

Minority language education in Nepal

Abstract This article, a case study in one group of communities of Nepal, considers minority language education in the face of increasing encroachment of the dominant and national language Nepali. Our over-arching research question asks, in the context of local education, what we can observe about the perceived value, use of, and competition between two local languages (Gurung, Gyalsumdo) and also between these languages and Nepali (the national language of Nepal) in the Manang District. We find persistent divisions amongst residents and educators about the current and future role of local languages.

Tapping and assessing the concept of educational regret: methodological techniques for opening up biographical reflection

ABSTRACTRegret, a negative assessment of an action committed or a path not taken, is a common biographical experience. However, it is a difficult concept to study in social science research. Participants are likely to enact protective barriers to avoid confronting personal responsibility for ‘bad’ decisions. Drawing on examples from an in-depth interview study of postsecondary educational experiences, we examine a technique and set of questions that can move beyond these biographical research roadblocks. We argue that a highly structured and comprehensive, yet flexible interview guide is ideal for exploring this concept. This article also outlines two questions that can elicit biographical regret, particularly educational regret. The first question asks respondents what they would change about their college experience. The second question asks respondents what advice they would provide to new college students. Together, these methodological techniques are effective at overcoming potential research roadblocks because they allow for an agentic, positive reframing of the experience of regret.

Finding the Meaning of Meaning: Emerging Insights on Four Grand Questions

This is a stand-alone reflection on meaning written by two scholars who recently edited a special issue on that topic. The first of four organizing questions concerns the nature of meaning. The meaning of signs (e.g., words) consists of nonphysical connection (e.g., symbolism) and potential organization. Meanwhile, existential meaning (meaning of life) involves purpose, value, mattering, continuity, and coherence. The second question concerns how meaning affects behavior. Answers are diverse and multifaceted, ranging from efforts to grapple with uncertainty and unknowns to engaging in significance-seeking violence and self-regulating in light of abstract values and standards. To the question of whether meaning is made or found, the authors propose that finding meaning is prevalent, while the creation of new meanings is only supported in a limited sense. Although often portrayed as a constructive process, accessing meaning normally involves relating target stimuli to what is already known. A fourth question asks whether meaning is individual/personal or collective/social. The collective dimension plays an integral yet often neglected role in scaffolding personal meanings.

Appropriating Apocalypse in Bonaventure's Breviloquium

Appropriating Apocalypse in Bonaventure's Breviloquium Justin S. Coyle (bio) This essay argues that in his Breviloquium Bonaventure expands the doctrine of trinitarian appropriation beyond its fixed scholastic frame; that he applies this expanded grammar of appropriation across the text both synchronically and diachronically, or formally in its literary structure and narratively throughout its account of salvation history; and that Bonaventure does so, or at least there are good reasons for so thinking, in response to the Joachite controversy that embattled the Franciscan Order of his time, to whose benefit he composed the Breviloquium.1 This is, then, an essay whose central task it is to investigate how a highly technical idiom of the scholastic mastertext features within Bonaventure's particular iteration. The results are striking. There is scarcely a depth in the Breviloquium that trinitarian appropriation does not reach.2 I write with an eye to certain question marks drawn by Bonaventure scholarship. First among these questions concerns the deeply trinitarian character of Bonaventure's thought. It's a feature many think sufficiently obvious to be regarded as a truism.3 But it's axiomatically true, too, as [End Page 99] nearly every scholastic thought, that the universal exists only in the particular. So determining whether the truism about Bonaventure's trinitarianism be true entails narrow attention to the particular. If it's true, that is, that the architecture of Bonaventure's theology is "thoroughly trinitarian,"4 it will be true somewhere. I show the doctrine of the Trinity as the Breviloquium construes it to be pervasive—indeed, to be the doctrine upon which all others hang—and that this depends in large part upon trinitarian appropriation.5 A second and "as yet unresolved" question asks after the specter of Joachim of Fiore in Bonaventure's thought,6 especially his early theology.7 Was even the early Bonaventure "a Joachite malgré lui"?8 How? I cannot accommodate that line of inquiry in full. What follows meets the question of Bonaventurean apocalyptic within the Breviloquium only where [End Page 100] it touches the doctrine of appropriation. There are interesting reasons for thinking these convergences are many, though, as the final section shows. The Grammar of Appropriation The proximate context for Bonaventure's theory of appropriation in the Breviloquium is a discussion of the Trinity.9 Though in truth "the First Principle—God, three and one"10 offers the subject matter for the entire text, only the first part of seven treats the Trinity proper. Within that part Bonaventure gathers his trinitarian theology under three headings. The first concerns the plurality of persons, the next the plurality of manifestations, and the last the plurality of appropriations.11 Bonaventure's notes under the first offer a tight prospectus of the Trinity ad intra. He ornaments it in scholastic patois concerning first the "right understanding" of the Trinity and next its "right expression." The second heading breaks the seal of the Trinity ad extra. There Bonaventure first describes the plurality of divine manifestation, or how God variously indwells, appears, descends, and sends/is sent.12 Last, fixed hard between the divine manifestations and his doctrine of creation, comes trinitarian appropriation. Appropriation for the scholastics names a highly idiosyncratic way of speaking about the Trinity, which is to say a grammar. And constitutive of every grammar is a syntax and a lexicon. The lexicon provides the non-negotiable terms of art by means of which appropriation happens, and the syntax provides the rules of combination in terms of which the lexicon is deployed. This section shows that Bonaventure adopts the syntax of appropriation, broadens its lexicon, and finally expands its grammatical application. The Breviloquium assumes a syntax of appropriation that it never fully describes.13 Still, it offers some hints: [End Page 101] Regarding the plurality of appropriations, Holy Scripture teaches us to hold the following: that even though all the essential attributes apply equally and without distinction to all the persons, yet oneness (unitas) is appropriated (appropriari) to the Father, truth (veritas) to the Son, and goodness (bonitas) to the Holy Spirit… Now, these are said to be appropriated, not because they are proper (propria) <to these persons>, since they are always common...

Nonisometric Domains with the Same Marvizi – Melrose Invariants

For any strictly convex planar domain $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ with a $C^\infty$ boundary one can associate an infinite sequence of spectral invariants introduced by Marvizi-Merlose. These invariants can generically be determined using the spectrum of the Dirichlet problem of the Laplace operator. A natural question asks if this collection is sufficient to determine $\Omega$ up to isometry. In this paper we give a counterexample, namely, we present two non-isometric domains $\Omega$ and $\bar \Omega$ with the same collection of Marvizi-Melrose invariants. Moreover, each domain has countably many periodic orbits $\{S^n\}_{n \geqslant 1}$ (resp. $\{ \bar S^n\}_{n \geqslant 1}$) of period going to infinity such that $ S^n $ and $ \bar S^n $ have the same period and perimeter for each $ n $.

Avoiding Two Consecutive Blocks of Same Size and Same Sum over $\mathbb{Z}^2$

A long standing question asks whether $\mathbb{Z}$ is uniformly 2-repetitive, that is, whether or not there is an infinite sequence over a finite subset of $\mathbb{Z}$ avoiding two consecutive blo...

PILGRIMS OF BELONGING: FAMILY, GANG, AND RELIGIOUS SCRIPT(URE)S TO LIVE BY

Understanding gang culture through a conceptual lens that views (ex-)gang members as “pilgrims,” invites us into a world where men are invested in a continuous quest for sanctified sources of belongingness. We witness men undertaking lone journeys between institutions of family, gangs, and religion in search of this need, relying on hallowed rituals, scripts, and symbolic structures to find and salvage this meaningfulness. This explorative study attempts to unpack the meanings of ‘coloured’ masculine identity by focusing on the intersections of gender, race, place, and religion in the process of “becoming” and “being” a man during and after incarceration. The research question asks, what meaning(s) do ‘coloured’ men derive from their belonging to street and prison gangs? Furthermore, how does gang and prison culture as sites of belonging influence the process of identity formation? This in-depth qualitative study explores the life history narratives of six ‘coloured’ men from the Cape Flats, who are between the ages of 21 and 35 years. It employs feminist theoretical frameworks broadly modelled on the theory of Intersectionality, Feminist Standpoint Theory, and Critical Men’s Studies. The narrative analysis revealed that family was a central theme in the life histories of the men. Family bonds were constructed around moments of contradiction, crisis, and trauma in the gang space, which ultimately transformed into an epiphany of religious conversion. Instrumental in this process of meaning-making was that the brotherhood that gangs provided replaced family units in times when families of origin were in states of precarity. The aim of this study is to refute dominant, negative representations of ‘coloured’ masculinity as only absent, aggressive, criminal, and/or violent. An investigation of ‘coloured’ masculinity is compounded by the multiple and problematic ways that ‘colouredness’ is perceived as synonymous with gangsterism and thus critical to understanding the gendered and racialised experiences of incarceration and reintegration, particularly in the South African context.

The Benefits of Cooperation Between University, NGOs and Communities – The case of IPREDE in Ceará

The Instituto da Primeira Infância (IPREDE) is an extension program of the Federal University of Ceará (UFC). Students from the school of Medicine collaborate with the Institute by exercising their knowledge practically. The community, the University and the organization harvest advantages out of this cooperation. In this regard, the research question asks which would be the benefits to each part. To analyse the benefits of this collaboration, this study uses three categories of benefits drawn on from Cruz et al. (2011), which identify advantages (i) for the NGO and for society; (ii) for the researchers involved; (iii) for the university. This research was exploratory, qualitative and used semi-structured interviews. The data analysis utilized Bardin’s (1977) content analysis technique. Findings highlighted how the relationship between NGOs, community and university has been beneficial for all parties, as this interaction tackles an important social demand: the lack of appropriate paediatric healthcare.

A close-up on ‘top tweeters’ in Finland: Relevance of the national context in political Twitter campaigning

This article examines the use of Twitter by Finnish candidates in the European parliamentary election of 2014. It concentrates on two groups of candidates: the 20 most active Twitter users measured by the number of tweets sent and those 20 candidates who aroused the most interest, measured by the number of Twitter replies received. The study takes into consideration contextual variables, such as gender, age, party, position and place of residence of the candidates. The main research question asks for what kind of candidates does Twitter offer a platform to challenge existing political power structures (equalizing hypothesis), and for what kind of candidates does Twitter not offer this platform (normalization hypothesis)&#x0D; The main finding was that Twitter was mostly used by established, middle-aged, urban, professional politicians of the right-wing National Coalition Party. This party has mostly young, well-educated and urban supporters in Southern Finland. For these people, Twitter was an effective tool to normalize the current power structures.&#x0D; However, for some other candidates Twitter seemed to have a more equalizing nature: the Green candidates, women and representatives of the parties’ youth organisations. The article demonstrates the need for a more nuanced approach to the normalization/equalization hypothesis in future research.

PENGARUH PENGGUNAAN METODE PQ4R (PREVIEW, QUESTION, READ, REFLECT, RECITE, REFIEW) TEHADAP HASIL BELAJAR EKONOMI SISWA KELAS X SEMESTER GENAP SMA NEGERI 1 PUNGGUR

PQ4R learning method is one part of elaboration strategy. This strategy is used to help students remember what they read. P stands for preview (quick reading glance), Q is question (asks), and 4R stands for read (reads), reflect (reflections), recite (frequently asked questions), and review (repeats thoroughly). This strategy is used to assist students in the process of teaching and learning in the classroom which is carried out with the activities of reading books. While the learning outcomes is an interaction that has been achieved accepting a settlement in the form of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor are realized in the form of numeric values in the KKM 75.General pattern of learning activity is the interaction between teachers and learners with the intermediary material in the learning activities chosen by the teacher models will affect the activities of learners are manifold. In this case use the learning model will determine the quality of learning outcomes. In this learning process there must be constraints faced, one is selecting the right model for the learning process.

For Colored Girls Who Loved Prince Rogers Nelson: Issues of Colorism and Identity

This article carefully examines the women with whom the artist, Prince Rogers Nelson, was most closely associated and the potential messages about colorism those relationships suggest. The author examines the issue from a personal perspective, as one who grew up idolizing Prince and as someone whose appearance did not reflect that of the women Prince flaunted. One overarching question asks: Was Prince a victim of colorism, as well as a perpetrator of it?

Food Insecurity and Social Capital Among Middle School Students

This study examines the relationship between social capital, poverty, limited food accessibility, and food insecurity among fifth to seventh graders ( N = 317), ages 10 to 14, attending a middle school in Northwest Arkansas. Using survey data that overcomes methodological limitations of previous research on youth food insecurity, we answer the following questions: Does social capital have a direct impact on youth food insecurity? And, does social capital buffer the influence of negative circumstances on youth food insecurity? The broader theoretical question asks “In places where there is an abundance of natural, economic, and technological resources, what stands in the way of consistent access to food for everyone?” Regression analysis finds that various indicators of social capital have a significant relationship with food insecurity even after controlling for multiple sociodemographic and circumstantial factors. In addition, significant moderating effects reveal the unique capability of two-parent households to buffer the impact of poverty and limited accessibility.

The Heroes and the Helpless: Conflicting Media Images of Refugees From Burma

After a protest against Burma's military government exploded into bloody violence on August 8, 1988, some political dissidents applied for refugee status through the United Nations. Since 1990, nearly 6,000 members of Myanmar's ethnic groups settled in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The project's overarching question asks: How have photojournalists covered the lives of the Burmese? An archive of photographs published from 1992 through 2012 by Fort Wayne's The Journal Gazette was used for this qualitative analysis. Three major themes emerged: refugees as “freedom fighters,” Aung San Suu Kyi as “superhero,” and Burmese as helpless victims lacking agency. With mounting tensions concerning refugees arriving into Europe, this examination is important because media images may play a role in welcoming and integrating refugees into new communities.

Bilateral Donors and the Age of the National Interest: What Prospects for Challenge by Development Agencies?

Summary Foreign aid agencies represent and champion global development priorities within a donor nation. Increasingly however, these agencies sit within donor governments that are strongly committed to upholding the national interest through their development commitments. This paper is concerned with how bilateral aid agencies manage this tension and how they might continue to serve the altruistic aims of development. The main research question asks if autonomy—or a combination of autonomies—can improve a development agency’s ability to defend the humanitarian imperative of development against normative pressures privileging the national interest? By drawing on theories of autonomy within public management literatures, it is possible to identify points of leverage for development agencies where spaces for autonomous preferences and actions remain, as well as sources of limitation where such opportunities are considerably reduced. Six types of autonomy are examined across three nations widely perceived as strong performers as donors—Norway, the UK, and Sweden. The paper suggests that while structural autonomy is critical for preserving humanitarian motivations, there are also unexplored opportunities within other autonomous spheres. A multi-dimensional examination of autonomy highlights the varying capacity that development agencies have to resist pressures to strongly nationalize the global development project.

Household Entrepreneurship and Social Networks: Panel Data Evidence from Vietnam

Using a unique panel of household businesses for Vietnam, this paper sheds light on the links between households’ and entrepreneurs’ social networks and business performance. We address two related questions. The first question asks if we can find evidence of a differentiated effect of employment of members of the family versus hired workers on the business performance. A second question tackles the respective effects of various dimensions of social networks on business technical efficiency. The hypothesis is that, beyond the channel of labour productivity, entrepreneurs that are confronted with an unfavourable social environment may produce less efficiently and realise a lower output than what could be possible with the same amount of resources. We find evidence of a marginal productivity differential between family and hired labour and highlight results consistent with the presence of adverse social network effects faced by households running a business, in particular ethnic minorities. We also stress the importance of professional networks for successful entrepreneurship.